I heard one story that involved a very studious yudansha spotting on old guy putting his gi on and about to tie his white belt. He quickly ran over to help. The old guy looked at him a little strangely but appreciated his efforts. Once class started it was to his stark suprise that he was in fact helping the shihan tie his belt. Apparently his shihan believed that he was always a beginner and wore a white belt to reflect this.

I guess this is a story that has probably done the rounds before so something a little more personal.

I recently joined with my new aikido school. Very excited by the fact our founder was coming to hold a seminar. I was rushing into the change room to get ready for class when I flung the door open and nearly took out the very man i was going to see. I just hope he has a bed memory :o

Come on you can do better than that :)

CNYMike

05-05-2005 12:38 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Well, I don't know how good this is, but the best I can do without potentially embarrassing anyone but me is this photo of myself from New Year's Eve practice:

I was at an advanced Aikido class at our HQ dojo and we were doing kotegashi. Tori, who if I remember rightly is about 4th Dan threw my 3rd Kyu ass so hard that somehow I managed to land backside first, sitting crosslegged. Which would have been weird enough if I hadn't then skidded on my backside about 6-8ft managing to spin around 3 times before eventually coming to a full stop about 12 inches from the wall, all the while still sitting crosslegged.

CNYMike

05-05-2005 08:32 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Quote:

Alex Lawrence wrote:

I was at an advanced Aikido class at our HQ dojo and we were doing kotegashi. Tori, who if I remember rightly is about 4th Dan threw my 3rd Kyu ass so hard that somehow I managed to land backside first, sitting crosslegged. Which would have been weird enough if I hadn't then skidded on my backside about 6-8ft managing to spin around 3 times before eventually coming to a full stop about 12 inches from the wall, all the while still sitting crosslegged.

I didn't read the "6-8 feet" part the first time, and I spent the evening chuckling over the image of you gliding from one side of a dojo to another, cross-legged and slowly spinning, while other Aikidoka pracitice around you, except for your sensei who shakes his head with that look on his face. Still funny anyway! :D Thanks!

CNYMike

05-05-2005 08:47 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

I have something that might be funny, but to just to cover my backside, I needed a way to set it up without naming names so I don't get in trouble (again). And I think I've found it.

Within the last six months, I made my first visit to a really big dojo. You know, 300 students and 30 yudansha. Yes, that big. And it had a mat setup like the one in this photo:

Note the wooden frame around the edge of the mat space, where (where I went anyway) the ropes were held down with these huge wooden pegs. And at the dojo I went to, there was maybe three feet between the edge of the mat and the wall. With a few hundred people on the mat for a seminar I was attending, it got very crowded, and it was very easy to stub your toe on one of the pegs.

That is not the embarrassing part.

The embarrassing part is that after stubbing a toe on one of these pegs at the end of Saturday's training session, I was talking to someone about it when I turned, took one more step, and one of those huge pegs went between two of the toes on my left foot, leaving a lovely shiner on one of them.

It was very painful.

"Do you want ice?" someone asked me.

"No!" I said. "I'm fine. Ouch!"

Well, depsite the fact that the relevant toes were a looked a teeny bit more splayed apart than their brethren on my right foot, I was able to put weight on it, so I gathered nothing was broken, and I went to Sunday's training session. Whereupon I had to quit for the day after five minutes of seated techniques because those bad boys do a number on my lower back. (Knees are fine; back, not.)

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

samurai_kenshin

05-06-2005 07:22 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

well, it was ricky's birthday, and we were all taking pictures (on the mat. Sensei made an exception to the "no cameras on the mat" rule) and my camera wouldn't go off. I got frustrated and swung it around, and it did take a picture...of one of the yudansha peeling off his gi. I look at that picture every time I need to get rid of the hiccups (the amount of hair on his chest really scares me.)

MaryKaye

05-06-2005 10:09 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

A couple of days ago one of our instructors was teaching a class of brand-new beginners, with a few senior students mixed in as helpers. He'd observed that people were reacting to ikkyo by locking their knees and trying to remain standing, and he decided to show that this allows an easy transition into sankyo. From where I was sitting, it was pretty clear that his intention was to do sankyo with a gentle takedown to the mat; but uke (a BIG guy) didn't see it that way and flung himself into 230 lbs of breakfall over his arm. The instructor blurted out "No! Not that!" and everyone laughed, the newbies quite nervously....

My own moment of shame is the time when we had some guests in the dojo and were doing rolling practice. I thought I could squeeze in one more roll--showing off a bit--and made a wonderful large round hole in the dojo wall with my heel. I had to patch the darned thing and put four coats of paint on it before anyone would let me live this story down.

When I first started I got the impression in my novice head that Ki-Aikido focused more on KI exercises than Aikido techniques. I told my Sensei that the 2nd day of my training no less and he told me I was very mistaken. I learned later that our organization is considered to be an offshoot of Ki-Aikido. DOH!!! I still have no idea how/why/where I got that impression. I still feel like an idiot when I think about it. :o

Stefan Stenudd

05-24-2005 03:11 PM

A iai doh

Oh, I've doh'ed a lot. What first comes to mind is actually iaido, which we sort of integrate with the aikido at my dojo, so maybe I'm excused?

I was showing the students how to hold the thumb slightly to the side on the tsuba (sword guard), when the sword is sheathed in the scabbard. In case it slips out, you just move your thumb down to the side of the blade, to stop it without cutting yourself. I was very clear about that - thumb to the side, so you don't cut yourself when stopping the blade from sliding out.

Now, although I held my thumb to the side of the tsuba, it was evidently not enough, because when I made my sword slide out and pushed down the thumb, I cut it. There was some generous bleeding, and I had to roll my handkerchief around the thumb.

I looked up at my students. They all had attentive, slightly puzzled faces - expressions that also got me puzzled, until I realized that for several seconds they thought I had meant for this to happen. They thought that was part of the technique.
Well, not for long, they didn't.

Which reminds me of a similar incident - this time an aikido demonstration. I was doing hanmi handachiwaza against yokomenuchi, first just a taisabaki evasive movement - signalling to my uke to make additional attacks.
He did, very quickly, but happened to switch to jodantsuki, and I was probably far too involved in showing my good side prophile to the audience, so he hit me straight in the cheek.
He had a good tsuki. I could both feel it and hear it on impact.
Realizing - with additional surprise - that I was not knocked out, I grabbed his wrist and did shihonage.

Then I looked at the audience. They had attentive faces, not even puzzled. It was obvious that they thought this to be the normal way in aikido to deal with tsuki.
I didn't correct them.

malsmith

05-24-2005 04:42 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

i remember one day we were doing techniques that involved the uke running towards nage(im not sure if you all use that term or not) but anyway this guy was running towards me with his arms open like he was going to tackle me or something, and i stepped to the side slightly and tried to throw him...
well i threw him but while he was in mid air of his high break fall he somehow hooked his arm around my head.... :eek: and then he continued with his breakfall with me attatched... a few seconds later i was just lying there on the mats next to him dumbfounded. :hypno:
im still amazed that he did that to me... i mean i think i performed the throw very well, but somehow i ended up on the floor too! :sorry:

samurai_kenshin

05-24-2005 05:34 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

kokyu nage tends to go awry in my dojo...a hi fall from katate dori kokyu nage turned into a stunning display of human flight. On my part as well as Akemi's (not atemi or ukemi...Akemi...it's a name!)

Natasha Bradley

05-25-2005 02:57 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

I grabbed my gi from the tumble dryer and rushed off to a seminar in Amsterdam. I was doing some warming up excercises when a pair of Maisie Mouse (size four-year old) knickers dropped out of my sleeve.

Once we had a large class with lots of beginners. We were practising yokomen strikes and because of the size, the class was split into two groups. When my turn came I was paired with an ex-karate practioner, much larger than me and higher ranked (in Aikido). Most of the beginners were watching. Now, my attacks are usually the worst so I really did my best: the result: gasps from the audience - she really hit him!

Natasha

taras

05-29-2005 03:13 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Only last Monday I went to see a dentist. I was in the chair in horizontal position; and when the pain came on ... I tapped out :D

CNYMike

05-30-2005 10:11 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Lol!

spinecracker

05-30-2005 11:51 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

My first day wearing a hakama at the dojo was a day to remember. I had just tested for shodan the week before, and had a brand spanking new hakama. I was sitting next to the head instructor (an honour for new dan grades) and the class had just finished bowing in. The instructor told us to jump to our feet and start running round the mat to warm up. In my zeal, I leaped into the air with the grace of a panther, got the hem of the hakama caught on my right foot, managed to hop for 10 or 15 feet, and then collapsed into a heap. I thought that it was over and that my shame was complete, when a bunch of kyu grades ran straight into me (actually over me - now I now what it feels like to be stampeded!). I was sure my humiliation was over. I slowly got to my feet, looked down, and realised that my hakama was down round my ankles (so much for tying it right)....as it was a hot day, I had decided not to wear gi pants under my hakama......ah, now my torment was complete!

DustinAcuff

06-01-2005 11:00 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

LOL Taras, Just did the same thing today.....

Tim Gerrard

06-03-2005 06:02 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Last summer on holiday, a mate and I were having a few beers in france. The conversation managed to work it's way round (as it always manages to) to unarmed combat, after discussing his unarmed training from the army, and how it could be expanded, he was eager for me to show him some aikido. So we stand up (swaying slightly after an afternoon of beer), I was just about to open my mouth to explain something when he blurted out "so what would you do against this?" and came at me. I did the first thing that came to mind irimi-tenkan and planted a punch on his cheekbone, down he went.
"Cheers mate, I thought you were going to do a lock or something, I could have figured that out!"

Well a couple of hours, more beers, a bust lip, and a suspected broken nose later I'd managed to show him the basics of aikido, and build on his existing techniques.

Not exaclty a 'DOH!', but I thought I'd highlight the fun of beer fueled debate. :D :uch: :disgust:

SupremeWarlord

06-12-2005 05:34 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

Quote:

Tim Gerrard wrote:

Last summer on holiday, a mate and I were having a few beers in france. The conversation managed to work it's way round (as it always manages to) to unarmed combat, after discussing his unarmed training from the army, and how it could be expanded, he was eager for me to show him some aikido. So we stand up (swaying slightly after an afternoon of beer), I was just about to open my mouth to explain something when he blurted out "so what would you do against this?" and came at me. I did the first thing that came to mind irimi-tenkan and planted a punch on his cheekbone, down he went.
"Cheers mate, I thought you were going to do a lock or something, I could have figured that out!"

Well a couple of hours, more beers, a bust lip, and a suspected broken nose later I'd managed to show him the basics of aikido, and build on his existing techniques.

Not exaclty a 'DOH!', but I thought I'd highlight the fun of beer fueled debate. :D :uch: :disgust:

Nothing like a cold one and beating the crap out of your friends.

Eric Webber

06-13-2005 09:53 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

hmmm...... let's see?
1. There were the ukemi in the parking lot of the dojo during a seminar party (ouch! :hypno: )
2. Dropping a wooden tanto on the head of the uke whom I had just disarmed in a kotegeishi technique (ouch! :hypno: )
3. Getting kicked in the head after my partner did a breakfall out of my kotegeishi technique :freaky: (posture IS important... and don't defend with your face! :uch: )

ooh, there's too many to list :D

rogueenergy

06-13-2005 10:22 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

My best moment was definitely off the mat. It was a few days before Thanksgiving. My wife and I were putting together a dinner for our friends. (I think we ended up with close to 40 people in our house for dinner.) This involved moving lots of furniture and setting up several 8' tables. When all of the furniture was out and only one table was up there was about a good 20' stretch of our hardwood floors that was exposed. I had only been practicing about 2 months and as such thought I had mastered forward ukemi. To finish setting the scene. The one table that was setup was on the far side of the room off to my left. I decided to find out if rolling on hardwood floors would hurt. On the positive side rolling on the hardwood didn't hurt, it was noisy, but didn't hurt. The sudden impact of my head hitting the edge of the 8' table when my roll went a little to the left did. :uch: Thankfully it was early enough in the day that only 2 of our friends were there to witness my talented display. :D

Thomas Ambrose

06-13-2005 06:54 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

A story from about two months ago...

I am still trying to figure out atemi. Not doing atemi, but receiving them...

We were working on this technique were uke comes in with a yokomen-uchi, and nage does an atemi similar to a yokomen-uchi on the uke's opposite side. Uke goes backwards to not get thwacked, and takes a backwards breakfall.

Sensei had stopped us to give some instruction to my partne while I was uke. While he watched, I attacked my partner, had a weird feeling in my face, and then notied I was on the ground! I totally didn't react, took the atemi, and well.. it worked! I went straight down.

Then I got a brief, and apparently needed lesson on the importance of avoiding getting struck. :)

Later in class, Sensei surprised me with a yokomen strike, and I managed to not get thwacked this time :D

Lan Powers

06-13-2005 07:01 PM

Re: Aiki Doh's

And don't forget the classic "gust of an unseen wind"..........(Damn that Johnny Corino's)
Try to stand close to John when it happens, he makes such a wonderful fuss. :)
Lan

Michael Hackett

06-14-2005 08:03 AM

Re: Aiki Doh's

My partner and I were receiving some correction from the instructor, a renowned and highly respected Japanese shihan at a seminar. The technique was, in part, a very painful wrist lock and then throw that we'd never seen before. The shihan applied it to me and it came on so quickly and so painfully that I immediately began tapping out like the Little Drummer Boy - in the middle of his back! He let go and I realized that I was beating on him. I apologized just as quickly as I tapped out and he looked at me very sternly and started laughing and said "Hmmm, hurts, doesn't it?"